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Lehigh University

Lehigh Preserve

Theses and Dissertations

2017

Masculinity: Exploring Relevant Cues to Promote

Help Seeking Intentions in College Men

Carin Molenaar Lehigh University

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Recommended Citation

Molenaar, Carin, "Masculinity: Exploring Relevant Cues to Promote Help Seeking Intentions in College Men" (2017). Theses and

Dissertations. 2958.

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Masculinity: Exploring Relevant Cues to Promote Help Seeking Intentions in College Men

by

Carin Molenaar

A Dissertation

Presented to the Graduate and Research Committee of Lehigh University

in candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

in

Counseling Psychology

Lehigh University May 2017

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Approved and recommended for acceptance as a dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

_______________________ Date _____________________________________ Dissertation Advisor Christopher T.H. Liang, Ph.D. _______________________ Accepted Date Committee Members: _____________________________________ Grace Caskie, Ph.D., Associate Professor _____________________________________ Arnold Spokane, Ph.D., Professor _____________________________________ Christopher Burke, Ph.D. Associate Professor

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Acknowledgements

A deep and heartfelt thanks to my committee members - Chris Burke, Arnie Spokane, and Grace Caskie - for challenging me to think in new ways and for providing feedback which helped me to strengthen my theoretical conceptualization and methodology.

An additional special thanks to Anthony Isacco, Matt Englar-Carlson, Jennifer Bosson, Joseph Vandello, and James “Jim” O’Neil - who gave the gift of their time and provided invaluable feedback on the materials created or adapted for use in this study.

A most profound thanks to my committee chair and doctoral advisor, Chris Liang, for giving me encouragement, motivation, and hope at each step of this journey. More important, still, I thank you for the patience to help me find both my voice and the courage to use it.

Jill and Rob: Your generosity and Midwest kindness are truly a joy. Thank you for letting me sleep on your floor each week so I could see your lovely faces, save a commute, and feel like part of a home.

Wendy and James: Meeting you both in college was the greatest gift of all. Thank you both for never letting me lose sight of friendship and joy.

Mukund: Thank you for endless days spent writing and working alongside each other in our favorite coffee shops. I have boundless admiration for your dedication to your field.

Mari and Warren: I thank you not only for providing respite, love, and the joy of family, but also for planting the seed of feminism in me at such a young age.

David: Thank you for being my brother, best friend, confidant, and inspiration. Even when I feel far away, I never feel alone knowing I can call you.

Steve and Jennifer: Thank you for your time, your courage, your support, your wisdom, and your unconditional love. Being your daughter will always be my greatest honor.

Floki, my cat: Thank you for never being afraid to remind me that there are more important things in life than work. You helped me to continuously prioritize naps, ear scratches, belly rubs, and dinner time.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate………...iii List of Tables………viii List of Figures………...ix Abstract………1 CHAPTER I Introduction………..3 Present Study………...13 CHAPTER II Sex and Gender………..15

Masculinity………16

Studying Masculinity………...17

Maladaptive and Adaptive Masculine Norms ……….19

Help Seeking………..21

Foundation for Gender Stereotype Priming………...24

Gender Priming: What Do We Know? ……….31

Judgments………32

Behaviors……….34

Intentions……….36

Limitations………...38

Counter-Stereotypic Gender Priming………39

CHAPTER III Method………...44

Participants………...44

Measures………..45

Conformity to Masculine Norms………...45

Self Reliance Vignettes………..46

Attitudes Toward Help Seeking……….47

Hypothesis Awareness………...48 Procedure……….49 Pilot………49 Full Study………...50 Study 1 ………51 Participants……….51 Materials………51 Experimental Condition……….51 Control Condition………..52 Analysis Plan……….52 Study 2 ………..………..53

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Materials………54 Counter-Stereotypic Condition………..54 Stereotypic Condition………54 Control Condition………..55 Analysis Plan……….55 Study 3…..…..……….56 Participants……….56 Materials………57

Experimental Condition: Possible “Ideal” Masculinity...……….57

Experimental Condition: Possible “Ought” Masculinity...………..….57

Control Condition………..58 Analysis Plan……….58 CHAPTER IV Results………60 Preliminary Analyses………...60 Study 1 Results………60 Study 2 Results………61 Study 3 Results ………...62 CHAPTER V Discussion………..63 Findings………...64 Limitations………...68

Implications and Future Directions………..70

Conclusion………...73

References………..74

APPENDICES A. Study 1 Experimental Prime: Masculinity Congruent.………97

B. Study 1 Control Prime……….98

C. Study 2 Counter-Stereotypic Prime………101

D. Study 2 Stereotypic Prime………...102

E. ‘Brief Personality Inventory’ ………103

Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-46 Adapted Diagnostic Interest Blank F. Self Reliance Vignettes ………...106

G. Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form………..114

H. Perceived Awareness of Research Hypotheses………...115

I. Demographic Questionnaire ………116

J. Consent Form………...117

K. Debriefing Statement………..121

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List of Tables

Table 1: Contrast Effects Procedure………92 Table 2: Descriptive Connection to Self-Reliance Vignettes………..93 Table 3: Descriptive Statistics and Correlations………..94 Table 4: Study 2 Multiple Linear Regressions for CMNI-46 and exposure to experimental

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List of Figures

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Abstract

Men, especially young men (18-25), consistently face disproportionate risks to both physical and psychological health (e.g., SAMHSA, 2012). Informed by social constructionist (see Addis, Mansfield, & Syzdek, 2010), masculinity theories (e.g., dysfunction strain; Pleck, 1995), and the regulatory focus theory (e.g., ought self guide; Higgins, 2012), I suggest that men’s demonstration and enactment of masculinity in context, above and beyond biological male sex, is a foundation for the health disparities facing men. Despite the theoretical relationships between masculinity and health-related outcomes, the identification of social cues that may elicit adaptive intentions or

expectations remains a necessary step in gender research (see Addis et al., 2010). In response to current literature, the present dissertation utilized a series of three

experimental studies to gain a deeper understanding of relevant social cues, informed by positive masculinity, that may help prime college men for more adaptive help-seeking expectations (i.e., lower conformity to the norm of self-reliance) and more positive attitudes toward professional support.

As hypothesized, the current studies found that as conformity to masculine norms increased, participant attitudes and intentions to seek adaptive forms of support decreased as evidenced by responses to both the self-reliance vignettes and the ATSPPH-SF. This significant relationship was found across all conditions in all three of the experimental studies. However, contrary to predicted hypotheses, none of the experimental conditions for any of the three studies resulted in significantly different responses to or relationships with the self-reliance vignettes or the ATSPPH-SF, even when controlling for conformity to masculine norms. In light of the findings, limitations, implications, and future

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directions are discussed and presented with a focus on informing theorists and researchers.

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Chapter I Introduction

Men experience higher mortality rates (Mansfield, Addis, & Mahalik, 2003), smoke more daily cigarettes (Sanchez-Lopez, Flores, & Dresch, 2012), drink more often and more heavily (Peralta, Steele, Nofziger, & Rickles, 2010), are at higher risk for lifelong illicit drug use (Brady & Randall, 1999), and experience more chronic illnesses (Blackwell, Lucas, & Clarke, 2014) than women. Young adult men (18-25) are

particularly at risk as they occupy the lowest academically attaining demographic group in regard to bachelor’s degrees (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013) and face the highest risk for heavy substance use (e.g., binge drinking; Peralta, 2007; SAMHSA, 2012). The transition to adulthood for young men attending college is further

complicated by the academic and social stress inherent in pursuing higher education (Brougham, Zail, Mendoza, & Miller, 2009; Laska, Pasch, Lust, Story, & Ehlinger, 2009). Research suggests that men may be more likely to engage in damaging behaviors such as alcohol consumption to cope with stress (Wang et al., 2009). The risk to men’s health is compounded by the realization that men, particularly young men, underutilize helping services (Addis & Mahalik, 2003; Berger, Levant, McMillan, Kelleher, & Sellers, 2005; Lee, 2002; O’Brien, Hunt, & Hart, 2005).

The greater health risks for men compared to women run deeper than biological, sex-based, traits (Addis & Mahalik, 2003; Huselid & Cooper, 1992; Peralta et al., 2010; Yamawaki, 2010). More telling than biological sex may be an individual’s conformity to masculinity ideology, or the socialization and exhibition of gendered norms and gendered roles. Masculinity ideology within the United States is founded within the social

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experiences of White, heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian, upper middle class men (see O’Neil, 2014). This dominant form of masculinity ideology, also known as hegemonic masculinity, is often unrealistic for all men. Hegemonic masculinity within the culture of the United States is broadly conceptualized through expressions of power, success, competition (Good, Dell, & Mintz, 1989), self-reliance, emotional control (Mansfield, Addis, & Courtenay, 2005), and fear of femininity (O’Neil, 2008). Hegemonic

masculinity is reinforced socially through prescriptive (i.e., what men ‘should’ do) and proscriptive (i.e., what men ‘shouldn’t’ do) norms. Examples for prescriptive and proscriptive norms are as follows: men ‘should’ be strong, men ‘should not’ ask for help (Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Within the framework of Regulatory Focus Theory

(Higgins, 2012), hegemonic masculinity represents one form of an ‘ought self-guide’ that men use to make decisions and take action.

Proscriptive and prescriptive norms for masculinity ultimately restrict men’s behaviors and set unrealistic expectations. Men, regardless of their background, are often unable to achieve or maintain the unrealistic and rigid expectations for demonstrating hegemonic masculinity (O’Neil, 2008; Pleck, 1995). Depending on distinct

constellations of identity (i.e., race, sexual orientation, etc.), men may have different ways to access power and may uniquely understand, construct, identify with, and enact behaviors associated with masculinity (see Courtenay, 2000a; Liang, Molenaar, & Heard, 2016). In this way, men may often struggle with the discrepancies between their ‘actual’ self and their ‘ought’ self-informed by the proscriptive and prescriptive norms for men (Higgins, 2012). When men do manage to endorse hegemonic masculine norms by engaging in behaviors that are socially accessible but potentially detrimental to their

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health (i.e., drinking, fighting, not seeking help; see Levant, Wimer, Williams, Smalley, & Noronha, 2009), they experience dysfunction strain (Pleck, 1995).

Bosson and Vandello (2011) characterized masculinity as precarious because it must be earned and consistently demonstrated through actions associated with

proscriptive and prescriptive masculine norms. Whenasked to provide ways in which men and women could lose their respective ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood,’ college students largely reported that manhood would be lost socially (e.g., by behaving badly, not providing for their family). In contrast, womanhood was largely seen as only being lost through physical means (e.g., not having children; Vandello, Bosson, Cohen, Burnaford, & Weaver, 2008). Although women also face social criticism for not conforming to feminine norms, their identity and ‘femaleness’ is not easily socially lost (Bosson & Vandello, 2013). The precariousness of masculinity may provide an

explanation for men’s relationship with risky behaviors and lowered sense of well-being. As Bosson and Vandello (2011) hypothesized, men may utilize aggressive and physical actions in order to regain and ‘prove’ their masculinity. Men may also ignore risks to their health and well-being in order to maintain their masculinity.

Although masculinity is not limited to biological males, it is widely understood that proscriptive and prescriptive masculine roles are more commonly socialized in boys and men than girls or women. In other words, masculinity is not a static biological trait nor is it necessarily limited to the male sex. Instead, masculinity is something that is ‘done,’ demonstrated, earned, or lost (Bosson & Vandello, 2011; Mansfield et al., 2003). Therefore, research focused on masculinity ideology, as opposed to simply utilizing men and women as subjects, is essential (see Courtenay, 2000a).

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Attitudes and expectations associated with masculinity may, unfortunately, manifest in damaging behaviors, such as substance use and abuse, which are aimed at reducing the ‘precariousness’ of their manliness. In a large-scale review of the literature, Lemle and Mishkind (1989) found that social drinking was a cultural expression of an individual’s manliness in the United States. Drinking alcohol, even at an early age, may be a behavior associated with masculine ideology and attitudes. For example, masculine norms in adolescent boys continue to be positively associated with alcohol use (Iwamoto & Smiler, 2013). Additionally, women who highly identify with masculine norms also reported higher levels ofalcohol use (Peralta et al., 2010). More complex studies have found that specific proscriptive and prescriptive masculine norms are associated with higher levels of alcohol use (i.e., restrictive emotionality, dominance, and playboy norms; Iwamoto, Corbin, Lejuez, & MacPherson, 2014; Levant, Wimer, & Williams, 2011) while others are associated with lower levels of alcohol use (i.e., ‘efforts to win’; Levant, Wimer, & Williams, 2011). It is clear that the troubling association between masculinity and alcohol and other substance use continues to threaten the health and well-being of boys and men within the United States. College-aged, young adult men are even more at risk, as they seem to adhere more rigidly to masculine norms than older men (Berger et al., 2005; O’Brien, Hunt, & Hart, 2005). It appears to be an unfortunate reality that risky alcohol use is a relevant and realistic experience for college men.

Alcohol use is not the only behavior associated with ‘proving’ masculinity that places men’s health at risk. Dysfunction strain (Pleck, 1995) may also occur when men adhere to masculine norms regarding help seeking attitudes (i.e., self-reliance). Seeking help has previously been identified as one way men may risk losing masculine status and

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control within Western societies (Moller-Leimkuhler, 2002). This is unsurprising given the understanding that “help seeking entails social costs; by seeking help, one publically acknowledges incompetence, inferiority, and dependence” (Lee, 2002; p. 29). Research has demonstrated the relationship between masculinity ideology and help-seeking attitudes, is above and beyond biological sex. Yamawaki (2010) reported that high masculine identification appeared more indicative of negative attitudes toward mental health help-seeking than male sex. Similarly, women with higher identification with masculine norms also reported negative perceptions of help seeking (Magovcevic & Addis, 2005). These studies, together, found that conformity to masculine expectations and attitudes, not biological sex, contributed to negative help seeking attitudes (i.e., self-reliance) that placed men at a disproportionate risk.

Recent conceptualizations of masculinity are stepping away from the image of masculinity as solely damaging and maladaptive. For example, the Positive

Psychology/Positive Masculinity Model (PPPM; Kiselica & Englar-Carlson, 2010) recognizes aspects of masculinity as healthy and adaptive by drawing attention to ways in which men, societally and culturally, utilize their strengths to support their communities in creative and prosocial ways (Englar-Carlson & Kiselica, 2013). The PPPM model highlights 10 traditionally orientated masculine strengths as a framework for recognizing other additional strengths within masculinity (e.g., responsibility, protection of others; Englar-Carlson & Kiselica, 2013; Hammer & Good, 2010). Although the PPPM has been theoretically applied to clinical work (see Englar-Carlson & Kiselica, 2013) and represents an integral movement in understanding conceptualizations of masculinity literature (see possible masculinities; Davis, Shen-Miller, & Isacco, 2010), an empirical

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understanding of the social mechanisms that shift maladaptive masculinity to positive masculinity is still unknown.

Previous literature studying masculinity, beyond biological sex, is primarily framed within the social constructionist framework (see Wong & Rochlen, 2008). The social constructionist framework posits that men’s enactment of masculine behaviors may vary considerably based upon their situational or contextual environment – or even change as they age (see Addis et al., 2010). If manhood is socially earned and socially lost, expressions of masculinity are also contextually and environmentally dependent. College cultures, with strong perceived norms of widespread alcohol use (e.g., Peralta, 2007), provide one example of a socially risky and stressful context. Within the already risky college culture, masculine ideology can be particularly problematic. For example, the masculine norm of power may be demonstrated by drinking more than or equal to other men (i.e., binge drinking). The high-risk substance use and risky behaviors exhibited by college populations may have a profound influence on how young men demonstrate their masculinity (Courtenay, 2000a) and how young men’s health is at risk. Mitigating social factors, such as college cultures, that influence behaviors detrimental to young men’s health and future well-being is reason enough to find out how expressing masculinity relates to risky behavior.

It is clear that college campuses represent a risky environment for men to understand and demonstrate their masculinity. Yet, the risks inherent in college campuses also present an opportunity for men to cultivate and demonstrate positive masculinity as well. For example, college men recognizing the strength needed to take responsibility for their physical well-being, developing the courage to speak to friends

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about concerning and dangerous behaviors (i.e., binge drinking), and gaining awareness of factors which hold them back from being the men they want to be may all help to reduce risky alcohol use on campuses. Understanding social, environmental, and

behavioral cues for demonstrating positive masculinity may lead to more effective means of male-friendly campus outreach and strength-based work with college men (Englar-Carlson & Kiselica, 2013). Therefore, research into relevant cues that prime expressions of masculinity, both maladaptive and positive, in college populations is needed.

Drawing from the theory of social constructionism, gendered behaviors are dependent on contextual and environmental cues (see Addis et al., 2010). Therefore, gendered roles (e.g., masculinity) are flexible and open to priming. Gender priming stems from Bargh, Chen, and Burrow’s (1996) study that found that implicitly presenting a construct (e.g., ‘being old’) would have real, explicit, impacts on behavior (e.g.,

‘walking slower’). Gender priming studies, more specifically, have examined how the presentation of prescriptive or proscriptive gender norms impact individuals’ intentions, expectations, and behaviors. For example, one study found that utilizing language associated with ‘masculine’ cultures (e.g., English) to describe the rules for a prisoner’s dilemma game increased participant competitiveness more so than utilizing language associated with cooperative cultures (e.g., Dutch; Akkermans, Harzing, & Witteloostuijn, 2010). Gender priming has previously been studied in many ways (see Ben-Zeev,

Scharnetzki, Chann, & Dennehy, 2012; Boucai & Karniol, 2008; Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013; Hundhammer & Mussweiler, 2012, Lemus, Moya, Lupianez, & Bukowski, 2014). Although the diversity in gender priming literature supports the robust and dynamic nature of socially constructed gender roles, the specific pathways from which primes, in

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turn, become either adaptive or maladaptive behaviors, intentions, or expectations are still in need of ongoing exploration (see Doyen, Klein, Pichon, & Cleeremans, 2012).

Many studies of gender priming have explored the immediate impact of primes on gendered judgments, intentions, and behaviors. When implicitly primed with gender-stereotyped behaviors (e.g., dependent - stays unhappily married), individuals judged female targets as more “dependent” and male targets as more “aggressive”–judgments in line with gendered stereotypes (Banaji, Hardin, & Rothman, 1993). Further, male participants, whose masculinity was “threatened” through behavioral feedback (i.e., researchers would make “bogus” comments about participant’s masculinity as they completed gender-neutral tasks) consumed more energy drinks and rated themselves as “less masculine” than men whose masculinity was “affirmed” by the researchers (Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013). Viewed from a precarious masculinity framework, it appears likely that the men in Chiou et al.’s (2013) study were primed to ‘prove’ their masculinity through behaviors by drinking larger amounts of energy drinks, despite still judging themselves as less masculine. In other words, Chiou and colleagues (2013) gender primes appear to have threatened both the men’s self-concept (i.e., ‘manhood’) and health.

Gender priming studies examining masculinity have also largely focused on understanding how men, and their endorsement of masculinity, relate socially and emotionally to others. For example, priming men with videos of other men overtly emotionally withdrawingsignificantly increased participants’ intent to withdraw from affective communication in comparison to subtle emotional withdrawal or control video cues (Ben-Zeev, Scharnetzki, Chann, & Dennehy, 2012). Previous studies focusing on

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gender priming have largely found that priming men with masculine stereotypes led to more ‘masculine’ behaviors.

However, only one study has explored the potential to ‘undo’ traditional gender stereotyped intentions/behaviors. Hundhammer and Mussweiler (2012), in their final study in a series of six, demonstrated that when participants were primed with

“modern/non-traditional” gender roles (i.e., a day in the life of a house husband or career woman) as opposed to ‘traditional’ gender roles (i.e., house wife) or control primes, they were significantly less likely to self-stereotype based upon their sex (i.e., women in the non-traditional condition no longer reported significantly higher ‘feminine’ scores than men). Therefore, utilizing counter-stereotypic primes (‘modern’ as opposed to

‘traditional’) appeared to offset sex based self-stereotyping (e.g., men ‘should be’ assertive; Hundhammer & Mussweiler, 2012). The findings of this study suggest the potential for sex-based proscriptive and prescriptive norms to be counteracted by the presentation of conflicting gendered norms (e.g., brave house husband). In other words, it may be useful to explore whether adaptive proscriptive and prescriptive masculine norms could impact men’s expectations or intentions above and beyond ‘traditional’ sex-based expectations. However, up until this point, current gender priming literature has yet to explore the relationships between adaptive counter-stereotypic masculine primes (e.g., it takes strength to know your limits) and expectations and intentions associated with masculinity (i.e., self-reliance, use of alcohol).

It would be beneficial to men to increase their likelihood of seeking help for behaviors, such as substance use or abuse, that place their health and the well-being of their communities at risk. Presently, researchers studying masculinity and gender

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priming and substance use are seeking to understand the complexity of how gender primes influence attitudes or intentions. With this understanding, future researchers may create interventions that encourage men to engage in more adaptive behaviors in line with positive masculinity. For example, college-aged men are presently socially discouraged from help-seeking because they are influenced by society to act in ways perceived to be masculine. Yet, existing interventions appear to, in some way, help support men’s health and well-being. For example, utilizing the theory of possible selves appears beneficial for helping college men identify ways of reaching their goals and overcoming barriers (Davies, Shen-Miller, & Isacco, 2010). Additionally, statements that describe normative or persuasive (e.g., “Real Men. Real Depression; Rochlen, McKelley, & Pituch, 2006) gendered messages towards help-seeking have previously been found to increase men and women’s intentions to seek professional psychological help (Christopher, Skillman, Kirkhart, & D’Souza, 2006; Rochlen et al., 2006). However, research has not identified what makes gender-sensitive brochures (Rochlen et al., 2006) effective or how gender primes impact individuals’ expectations, intentions, and ultimately, behaviors.

Positive masculinity (Kiselica & Englar-Carlson, 2010) represents a masculinity that inhabits the area between traditional proscriptive and prescriptive masculinity and modern/non-traditional masculinity. Positive masculinity may also help men imagine more adaptive, healthy, and positive possible selves. In this way, perceived discrepancies between men’s ‘actual’ self, their ‘ideal’ self, and their ‘ought’ self may be reduced (Higgins, 2012). Positive masculinity may also be a mechanism in which to frame help seeking in a way that reduces perceived social costs (see Bosson & Vandello, 2011; Lee, 2002). Although it represents a theoretical avenue to increase the adaptive and healthy

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enactment of masculinity, to date, the social mechanisms surrounding the priming of positive masculinity remain unexplored. Understanding ways of supporting more

adaptive expectations and intentions may open new avenues for supporting the health and well-being of young men. The identification of relevant cues that may potentially elicit adaptive intentions or expectations, such as those in line with positive masculinity, is a necessary step in gender research (see Addis et al., 2010).

Present Study

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of relevant cues that may help prime college men for more adaptive help-seeking expectations and intentions in line with positive masculinity. Expanding upon our understanding of how masculinity is constructed and enacted in college environments can inform the development of relevant and informed programs that support the well-being of college students. This study seeks to combine the literature on masculinity, gendered priming, and help-seeking in order to explore the following overarching questions: Does priming positive

masculinity increase college men’s help seeking intentions? Does identification with masculinity and exposure to a counter-stereotypic gendered prime predict men’s intentions toward help seeking within a college context?

Study 1 Hypothesis: Participants exposed to a positive masculinity informed

sentence scrambling prime will express more positive attitudes toward help seeking (i.e., lower endorsement of self-reliance) than participants exposed to a neutral prime when controlling for conformity to masculine norms.

Study 2 Hypotheses: There will be different relationships of conformity to

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ATSPPH-SF) based upon exposure to experimental condition (i.e., counter stereotypic, stereotypic, and control).

As conformity to masculine norms increases, men’s endorsement of help-seeking (i.e., self-reliance and ATSPPH-SF) will remain the same when exposed to a counter-stereotypic prime.

As conformity to masculine norms increases, men’s endorsement of help-seeking (i.e., self-reliance and ATSPPH-SF) will decrease when exposed to a stereotypic prime.

As conformity to masculine norms increases, men’s endorsement of help-seeking (i.e., self-reliance and ATSPPH-SF) will decrease when exposed to a control prime.

Participants in the counter-stereotypic and control prime conditions will report higher endorsement of help-seeking intentions than participants in the stereotypic condition.

Participants in the counter-stereotypic condition will report higher endorsement of help-seeking intentions than participants in the control condition.

Study 3 Hypothesis: When participants are asked to reflect on their ideal possible

masculine self, they will be more likely to endorse positive attitudes toward help seeking (i.e., lower endorsement of self-reliance) than participants exposed to a neutral prime, or an ‘ought’ masculine self prime, when controlling for conformity to masculine norms.

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Chapter II Literature Review

Sex and Gender

The American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance (2009) differentiates between sex, gender, gender expression, and gender identity. According to APA, “sex refers to attributes that characterize biological maleness and femaleness…[such as] sex-determining genes, the sex chromosomes, the H-Y antigen, the gonads, sex hormones, the internal reproductive structures, the external genitalia, and secondary sexual characteristics” (p. 28). In contrast, “gender refers to the psychological, behavioral, or cultural characteristics associated with maleness and femaleness” (p. 28). Although sex and gender are distinct, they are also inherently associated as evidenced by gender’s reliance on cultural associations with maleness and femaleness.

APA seeks to clarify the distinction between sex and gender through gender role and gender expression. For example, although “gender role refers to behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that a society, in a given historical period, designates as masculine or feminine…” (APA, 2009, p. 28), individuals can differ in their expression of cultural norms surrounding gender. As such, APA (2009) defines gender expression as “the way in which a person acts to communicate gender within a given culture” (p. 28).

Individuals may express gender in ways that do not coincide with societal or cultural gender roles or reflect their gender identity (i.e., “personal sense of being male, female, or of indeterminate sex” APA, 2009, p.28). Therefore, it is important to consider how

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individuals express their own masculinity or femininity, above and beyond biological sex.

Masculinity

In line with APA’s (2009) emphasis on the fluidity of gender expression above and beyond biological sex, scholars in the field of men and masculinity call for the use of a multicultural, social constructionist (Addis & Mahalik 2003; Addis, Mansfield, & Syzdek, 2010) perspective for understanding the diverse ways in which the expression of masculinity is impacted by culture, society, and systemic oppression (e.g., racism,

homophobia; Wester & Vogel, 2012). A social constructionist perspective views the demonstration of masculinity as fluid and contextually dependent (Addis et al., 2010; APA, 2009), in stark contrast to viewing masculinity as static and stable (i.e., sex-based). Although masculinity is largely associated, socialized, and displayed by boys and men, social constructionist frameworks recognize that masculinity – both positive and negative – is not biologically determined and is not limited to males (see Englar-Carlson &

Kiselica, 2013).

Hegemonic masculinity, or the culturally sanctioned personality traits, behaviors, and attitudes associated with maleness (APA, 2009) within the United States, has long been understood through the dominant cultural lens of White, heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian, upper middle class men (see O’Neil, 2014). Recent additions of intersectionist perspectives have built upon social constructionist perspectives by recognizing that, despite hegemonic masculinity, different cultures within the United States value unique expressions of masculinity (see Liu & Chang, 2007; Torres, Solberg, & Carlstom, 2002). However historically, hegemonic masculinity has led generations of diverse boys and

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men in the United States to seek ways of gaining success, demonstrating toughness, strength, and self-reliance, and avoiding femininity (O’Neil, 2014). Yet, as evidenced by the gender role strain paradigm (Pleck, 1981; Pleck, 1995), and systemic challenges (i.e., racism or heterosexism; Franklin, 2004; Liang, Salcedo, & Miller, 2012; Syzmanski & Ikizler, 2013) most men face distress when they are unable to live up to the expectations of hegemonic masculinity (i.e., discrepancy strain; Pleck, 1995). Additionally, men may risk health and well-being (e.g., drinking, substance use, fighting) in order to attempt to prove or demonstrate their masculinity (i.e., dysfunction strain; Pleck, 1995).

Studying Masculinity. Thompson and Pleck (1995) originally distinguished

between two branches of study of masculinity ideologies (i.e., “proscriptive and

proscriptive social norms that sanction men and masculinity performances” (Thompson & Bennett, 2015, pp 115); the trait approach (e.g., dispositions) and the normative approach (e.g., culturally based). The trait approach posits that self-identification with masculinity or femininity traits differentiates between males and females (Thompson & Bennett, 2015). The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), draws from the trait approach of studying masculinity. The BSRI also represents one of the first

psychometric tools to assess individual’s perception of their masculinity and femininity. The BSRI utilizes 60 adjectives, 20 of which are masculine (e.g., aggressive, makes decisions easily, self-reliant, ambitious) and 20 of which are feminine (e.g., shy, soft-spoken, childlike, flatterable). In addition to the BSRI, the Personal Attributes

Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence & Helmreich, 1978) also draws from the trait perspective of studying masculinity. In contrast, the normative approach to studying masculinity

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and groups. Here, masculinities reside outside of individuals - impacting, but not holistically determining, individual’s actions, behaviors, and feelings (Thompson & Bennett, 2015).

Drawing from the social constructionist perspective of the present study, the third, relatively recent, branch of the study of masculinity ideologies is referred to as

masculinity beliefs. Drawing from numerous theorists (e.g., Pleck, 1995), masculinity beliefs are informed and communicated through culturally based standards of manhood – similar to the normative perspective – but reside in an individual self – similar to the trait perspective. In this way, the masculinity beliefs perspective highlights an individual’s internalization of culturally sanctioned beliefs about men and masculinity (Thompson & Bennett, 2015). Scales that draw from a masculinity beliefs perspective are the

Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory - 46 (CMNI-46; Parent & Moradi, 2009), the Male Role Norms Inventory- Revised (MRNI-R; Levant, Rankin, Williams, Hasan & Smalley, 2010), and the Gender Role Conflict Scale-Short Form (GRCS-SF; Wester, Vogel, O’Neil, & Danforth, 2012).

The present study will utilize the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory – 46 (CMNI-46; Parent & Moradi, 2009). The CMNI-46 was chosen as this scale was created to assess respondent’s conformity - affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively – to

masculinity norms within the United States culture. The CMNI-46 has also been frequently utilized by researchers investigating masculinity (see Thompson & Bennett, 2015).

Not until recently has the theoretical understanding of masculinity stepped away from an emphasis on deficits and moved towards an understanding of ways in which

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masculinity may also be positive (see Englar-Carlson & Kiselica, 2013). Kiselica and Englar-Carlson (2010) identified a non-exhaustive list of 10 strengths that stem from traditional proscriptive and prescriptive gender norms that, instead of representing deficits of masculinity, represent prosocial and adaptive traits. Three of these ten strengths are related directly to the present study; Male Ways of Caring, Male Self-Reliance, and Male Courage, Daring, and Risk-Taking. These strengths encompass the socialization of how men care for and protect their friends, how men solve problems, and how men’s risk-taking socialization can benefit others (i.e., protecting others),

respectively (Kiselica & Englar-Carlson, 2010). Positive masculinity traits are directly related to ways in which college men can help support the health and well-being of not only themselves but also their communities. For example, college men may utilize courage to step in when their friends are making dangerous or risky decisions (i.e., binge drinking). Although Positive Masculinity framework remains largely theoretical and in need of empirical exploration (Liang & Molenaar, In Press), a great deal of literature has explored which masculine norms may place men at risk and which masculine norms may serve to protect or harm the well-being of men.

Maladaptive and Adaptive Masculine Norms. Previous literature has already

established correlations between masculine norms and adaptive outcomes and masculine norms and maladaptive outcomes. Identification with Restrictive Emotionality, Self-Reliance, Rejection of Homosexuals, Avoidance of Femininity, all measured using the MNRI-R (see Levant et al., 2010) in addition to Restrictive Affectionate Behavior Between Men, a factor of gender role conflict (GRCS; O’Neil et al., 1986), all appear significantly associated with more negative attitudes toward help seeking (Berger et al.,

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2005). Endorsement of Success, Power, and Control (GRCS) appears significantly associated with both increased alcohol and other drug use and decreased attitudes toward help seeking (Blazina & Watkins, 1996). High identification with Winning and Risk-Taking subscales on the CMNI-46 appear related to the reduction in proper use of health care resources whereas high levels of Self-Reliance (CMNI-46) was related to reduced preventative self care (Levant & Wimer, 2014). Endorsing, believing, and demonstrating traditional masculinity, based upon the present status of the literature, appears to suggest that masculinity appears more risky than adaptive when it comes to men’s health and well (see Levant & Wimer, 2014; McCreary, Newcomb, & Sadava, 1999).

Yet, relevant to the present study and to the theory of positive masculinity, are aspects of masculinity that appear to serve an adaptive role in the well-being of men. For example, McCreary et al. (1999) reported that men’s endorsement of ‘agentic’ traits (e.g., independence; PAQ) was protective both directly and indirectly in regard to alcohol use. More recently, Levant and Wimer (2014) explored the relationships between various measures of masculinity and health behaviors. Utilizing the Health Behaviors Inventory – 20 (HBI-20; see Courtenay, McCreary, & Merighi, 2002), Levant and Wimer (2014) reported that the Winning and Emotional Control subscales of the CMNI-46 and the Success/Power/Competition subscale of the GRC-SF were related to reduced substance use. The Success/Power/Competition subscale was also associated with higher

preventative self care and increased proper use of health care resources. Iwamoto et al. (2014) identified higher identification with Emotional Control and Heterosexual

Presentation (CMNI-46) as protective for college men in regard to problematic alcohol use. Specifically in relation to attitudes toward help seeking Good et al. (1989) reported

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that men, who on a whole did not endorse traditional masculinity, also had more positive views in regard to seeking professional help.

The adaptive associations of various factors related to masculinity in regard to health and help-seeking, however, does not minimize the potential risks that may also manifest (e.g., high scores on the Success/Power/Competition (GRCS-SF) subscale also relate to increased anger and stress; Levant & Wimer, 2014). Therefore, when

considering the risks facing various populations of men, it is important to recognize the complexity of masculinity and the currently limited nature of masculinity literature.

The masculinity literature is currently limited in a variety of ways. For example, it has provided conflicting information regarding adaptive and maladaptive factors of masculinity (see Blazina & Watkins, 1996; Levant & Wimer, 2014). These limitations may be in part due to the use of updated scales (i.e., GRCS and GRCS-SF), but may also be in part to the nature of the cross-sectional designs. As such, a clearer understanding of the ways in which masculinity is demonstrated and enacted in contexts that are more relevant and applicable to lived experiences of men is an integral direction for future research. Gender priming research may provide an avenue to continue exploring the complexity of masculinity in addition to providing a wider understanding of how gender informs help seeking.

Help Seeking

The act of help seeking can be either convenient or instrumental (see Chan, 2013). Convenient help seeking occurs when, although individuals could complete a task on their own, motivation is increased through the support of a helper. In contrast,

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by an event or task, preventing successful completion without a helper. Furthermore, individuals can seek out support from others (e.g., interpersonal support) or may utilize more impersonal types of support (e.g., ‘do-it-yourself’ manuals; DePaulo & Fisher, 1980).

Although seeking help is useful, and at times necessary to effectively reach goals, it is understood that the social costs in seeking help – and the type of help sought - may be high (see Ackerman & Kenrick, 2008; Lee, 2002). The costs to seeking help are complex as they may be internal or external and may be real, anticipated, or only perceived (see DePaulo & Fisher, 1980). For example, the act of seeking help involves an interaction where the individual seeking help may lose self-respect, appear

incompetent (DePaulo & Fischer, 1980), may feel or appear inferior to the helper, and may be perceived as reliant on the helper (see Lee, 1997). The social costs for seeking help appear more salient in the experience of men. For instance, Lee (2002) found that men, especially men in relative positions of status, perceived higher social costs to seeking help than women, and subsequently sought lower levels of support from peers.

Chan (2013) utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005) to conceptualize how individuals both make the decision to seek help and decide what form of help to seek. In Chan’s (2013) conceptualization, an individual first encounters a task that triggers beliefs associated with help seeking. In addition to the specific task, person (e.g., personality) and situation (e.g., gender ideology/masculinity) factors inform beliefs associated with help seeking within a unique context. Utilizing this framework, a college man who encounters course material that he feels unable to

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help. For example, “Is the cost of failing more or less than the cost of asking for help?” He may also consider situation factors such as “Do my friends use tutoring or do they cheat by paying someone to do the homework for them?” Most relevant to the present dissertation are situation factors (i.e., masculinity) informed beliefs about help seeking in young adult college men.

Drawing from Higgins’ (2012) Regulatory focus theory, young adult men faced with events or tasks that exceed their resources, experience discrepancies between their ‘Actual,’ ‘Ideal,’ and ‘Ought’ selves. Within the masculinity literature, ‘Ideal’ selves (i.e., “Who I’d like to be”) may be understood through the lens of ‘possible masculinities’ (Davies et al., 2010) or ‘positive masculinity’ (Kiselica & Englar-Carlson, 2010). In contrast, ‘Ought’ selves (i.e., “Who I ought to be based on obligation or duty”) may be understood through the lens of hegemonic masculinity.

Depending on the context, different ‘self guides’ may be more salient to college men and may inform their actions and behaviors at that time. As such, contexts in which beliefs about masculinity and help seeking intersect are problematic to the health and well-being of men. For instance, when men experience anxiety and insecurity about their manhood, they may be more likely to view the risks of looking incompetent or seeking help (i.e., losing masculinity) as higher than the risks associated with failure. This may then lead them to cope in ways that are informed by masculine norms (e.g., self-reliance or drinking) to move their ‘actual’ self closer in line with their ‘ought’ self, instead of seeking adaptive forms of help. From the Regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 2012) perspective, men may understandably engage in self-destructive behaviors if – within that

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context – they believe it helps them to reduce the discrepancy between their ‘actual’ and ‘ought’ selves.

Due to the importance of context, different ‘self guides’ may become more or less salient. Depending upon which self guides are primed, individuals may express different intentions, expectations, or behaviors when weighing the costs and benefits of seeking different types of help (see Higgins, 2012). As men who seek to reduce the discrepancies between ‘ought’ and ‘actual’ selves may align more closely with maladaptive hegemonic masculinity in times when help is needed, it may also be true that men who are guided by ‘ideal’ selves may move in a more adaptive direction in order to reach their goals. The application of regulatory focus theory within the masculinity literature is needed to answer the question of whether or not priming men with ‘Ideal’ or ‘Ought’ self guides may impact their health and well-being when faced with tasks that may be supported by seeking adaptive help. Additionally, do men who are informed by either ‘Ideal’ or ‘Ought’ self guides experience different outcomes in regard to their health and well-being?

Foundation for Gender Stereotype Priming

Bargh, Chen, and Burrow’s (1996) study first demonstrated that the implicit presentation of a construct (e.g., stereotypes) would have an explicit impact on behavior. In a series of three studies (N = 34, 60, 41), they utilized modified scrambled sentence tasks (Srull & Wyer, 1996) and found evidence for automatic social behavior – or the idea that behaviors, intentions, or expectations are triggered by relevant cues in an individual’s immediate environment. Previous literature within the field of social

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to trigger information associated with intentions and expectations, but also to impact behaviors (Ferguson & Bargh, 2004).

Although Bargh, Chen, and Burrow’s (1996) did not explicitly address gender roles, they set the framework for gender priming literature. Gender priming studies, more specifically, explore primes related to proscriptive or prescriptive gendered stereotypes. This expands upon previous literature such as Bargh et al.’s study (1996) that explored the effects of stereotypes not directly related to gender; interpersonal, age-based, and racism-based. Specifically, Bargh et al.’s (1996) first study found that college students primed with ‘rude’ (i.e., intrude, bother, obnoxious) constructs interrupted the

experimenters significantly faster (F (2,33) = 5.76, p = .008) than those primed with ‘neutral’ (i.e., exercising, watches, prepares), or ‘polite’ (i.e., patiently, cautiously, courteous) constructs. Their second study found that college students primed with elderly stereotypes (i.e., bitter, wise, conservative) walked significantly slower than those primed with neutral (i.e., private, clean, thirsty) constructs during two separate trials (t(28) = 2.86, p < .01; t(28) = 2.16, p < .05). Finally, their third study found that priming college students with faces of African American men significantly increased participant hostility in comparison to participants primed with faces of non-Hispanic White men (F(1,39) = 6.95, p < .05), even after controlling for racist attitudes.

The priming effects from this seminal article have been successfully reproduced to varying degrees (see Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2002; Cesario, Plaks, & Higgins, 2006, Hull, Slone, Meteyer, & Matthews, 2002), however these studies either dealt primarily with biases instead of behaviors or faced similar challenges to Bargh et al. (1996) such as imprecise timing methods. Yet, they add to the increasing complexity of the effects of

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priming. For example, Cesario, Plaks, and Higgins (2006) successfully replicated Bargh et al.’s (1996) findings in a series of three studies. However, instead of simply

automatically acting in ways that aligned with the primed stereotypes (i.e., walked slower after elderly primes), college students appeared to anticipate interpersonal interactions based upon the primed stereotypes (i.e., walked faster after elderly primes if they implicitly disliked older adults and did not want to interact or be associated with older adults). Here, participants primed with elderly stereotypes did not simply walk slower than individuals in other priming conditions, participants walked in ways that aligned with their implicit beliefs about older adults. In other words, participants that disliked the elderly walked faster both because their implicit dislike of older adults was primed and they did not want to be like older adults.

In their second study, Cesario et al. (2006) investigated the role of implicit attitudes about stereotyped groups (e.g., the ‘elderly’) on behavior by hypothesizing that participants that exhibited positive attitudes towards older adults would walk more slowly as a ‘preparation’ for positively interacting with older adults. In contrast, it was

hypothesized that those that exhibited negative attitudes towards older adults would walk faster in ‘preparation’ for distancing themselves from older adults and stereotypes

associated with older adults. They further hypothesized that opposite effects would arise from priming ‘youth.’ In order to test their hypotheses, Cesario et al. (2006) created an experimental design, and advertised it as a ‘perceptual and motor activity’ study. Here, in addition to ‘filler tasks’ unrelated to the study, they measured participants’ implicit beliefs about both youth and older adults through implicit attitude measures (i.e., sequential priming task; Fazio, Jackson, Dunton & Williams, 1995). As such, faster

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response latencies when evaluating the valence (i.e., positive or negative) of target adjectives after being primed by either elderly or youth category labels were used to determine implicit attitudes. In order to prevent contamination from the explicit and implicit attitude measures, participants waited approximately a week before returning to participate in the second study. During the second study, participants were subliminally primed with faces of older adult men (i.e., elderly), teenage boys (i.e., youth), or no faces (i.e., control) before being timed by a confederate with a stopwatch as they exited the room.

In a sample of 80 men and women college students in the United States, Cesario et al. (2006) found a significant difference in exit speed between elderly prime and youth prime conditions [F(1,64) = 5.81, p = .02], with no significant difference between the control prime conditions for either the youth or elderly condition. Participants within the elderly condition exhibited faster walking speeds as negative attitudes toward older adults increased [ = .71, t(18) = 2.64, p = .02, 𝑅2=.42] and slower walking speeds as positive attitudes increased [ = -.74, t(18) = -2.78, p = .01]. Participants within the youth condition demonstrated opposite effects - exhibiting faster walking speeds as positive attitudes toward youth increased [ = .51, t(19) = 2.26, p = .04] and slower walking speeds as negative attitudes increased [ = .46, t(19) = -2.38, p = .03, 𝑅2=.61]. As such, Cesario et al.’s (2006) hypotheses were confirmed – participants’ behaviors were altered depending upon both their implicit stereotyped attitudes and their desire to be associated with valued groups after being primed.

Doyen, Klein, Pichon, and Cleeremans (2012) also sought to address the

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two studies, Doyen et al. (2012) replicated Bargh et al.’s (1996) methodology. However, they translated the scrambled sentence task to French for relevancy to their sample. Their first study, utilizing 120 Belgian college students and an objective measurement of

walking speed (i.e., infrared beams) failed to reproduce a priming effect. However, when they added researchers with stopwatches that were aware of the priming conditions, in addition to retaining their objective time measurement, they successfully replicated Bargh et al.’s (1996) findings, measured both subjectively (F(1, 24) = 12.32, p = .002, 𝜂2 = .339) and objectively (F(1, 24) = 7.07, p = .014, 𝜂2 = .228). This finding, along with Cesario et al.’s (2006) report, suggests a complex interplay between implicit stereotypes, primes, environmental contexts, and behavior.

Although Doyen et al. (2012) provided an important expansion of Bargh et al.’s (1996) study, they presented significant confounds by translating the primes into French and by not assessing for participants implicit attitudes about older adults (Cesario et al., 2006). The importance of language, especially in relation to the cultures and gendered stereotypes contextually associated with the language, is essential. For example, in a sample of first year Dutch college students, utilizing English, a language associated with ‘masculine’ cultures, to present rules for a prisoner’s dilemma game significantly

increased participant competitiveness in comparison to the same rules translated in Dutch, a language associated with cooperative cultures (Akkermans, Harzing, & Witteloostuijn, 2010). Therefore, studies replicated in English may be necessary for controlling for this particular confound.

Casper and Rothermund (2012), in a series of two studies, found further evidence that primes must be accompanied by relevant contexts, specifically when exploring

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gendered self-stereotyping. In both studies, participants were exposed to a sequential priming paradigm involving a lexical decision task (see Lun, Sinclair, & Cogburn, 2009). Participants were first primed with a context phrase (i.e., “to carry the boxes”) and then either the self (i.e., I) or others (i.e., Others). Next, participants viewed ‘target words.’ Relevant to their hypotheses, a list of 6 stereotypical masculine ‘target words’ (i.e., assertive, strong, ambitious) were matched with either contextually relevant (i.e., strong – to carry the boxes) or contextually irrelevant (i.e., ambitious – to comfort a crying friend) conditions. Participants were exposed to four combinations for each of 6 masculine ‘target words’ (Self-relevant context, self-irrelevant context, others-relevant context, others-irrelevant) totaling 24 trials. Twenty four additional trials with neutral ‘target words’ (i.e., musical – to learn to play an instrument), and 48 trials with non-word ‘target words’ were added so each participant, in total, was exposed to 96 separate trials. After viewing the ‘target words’ the participants were asked to indicate, as quickly as they could, whether or not the ‘target word’ was a real word or not. After every 4 trials, participants also were asked whether the context phrase was referencing their self or others.

In Casper and Rothermund’s (2012) first study, they found a significant

interaction between “self” primes and context (F(1, 25) = 4.11, p < .05, partial 𝜂2=.14), but only when the context was relevant to the masculine stereotype (t(25) = 2.47, p < .05,

d = .33) in a sample of 26 male German college students. This finding, in addition to the

findings of their second study with a sample of 20 men and 24 women German college students, suggests that men specifically [F(1, 19) = 3.33, p < .05, partial 𝜂2=.15], are more likely to quickly identify masculine stereotypes when primed with their ‘self’ and a

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context relevant to a masculine stereotype. As such, Casper and Rothermund (2012) suggested that men’s behavior might be uniquely regulated by stereotypes relevant to environments.

When combined, these studies present a complex and multifaceted understanding of the impact of primes on behaviors, intentions, and expectations. Cesario et al. (2006) found that implicit attitudes towards stereotyped groups impacted participant behaviors uniquely when primed. This, as they hypothesized, was motivated by individuals’ preparation for interacting with their disliked or liked social group members – or a desire to be associated with favored groups. Similarly, Doyen et al. (2012) found stereotype primes were only influential when combined with relevant information from the

environment. Combined, these studies create support for the potential moderating impact of context. For example, in an effort to be associated with other guys at college parties, men may be more likely to engage in risky alcohol use (e.g., binge drink, ‘pre-game’) when in the context of a party than in another context (e.g., out to dinner with parents). Therefore, when investigating the impact of primes we must take into account existing implicit attitudes in addition to environmental contexts relevant to the experience of college men.

Although the combined results of the aforementioned articles provide evidence that implicitly priming various stereotyped constructs automatically impacted participant behavior in relevant contexts, regardless of their explicit attitudes, the specific pathways are still unknown. In response to these collective findings, the present study utilizes a variety of gender primes relevant to college campuses, in addition to a contextually relevant task – vignettes created to capture situations relevant to risky college cultures in

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order to explore positive masculinity on college campuses. Additionally, in an effort to control for contrast effects, the current study utilizes implicit primes (Wheeler & Petty, 2001).

Additionally, based upon the findings of Cesario et al. (2006), it seems unlikely that men would implicitly distance themselves from ‘manhood’ as, in the United States, men are socialized to defend their group membership through demonstrations of

masculinity (see Vandello et al., 2008) even to the detriment to their health (i.e.,

dysfunction strain; Pleck, 1995). This presents a significant challenge for researchers and clinicians seeking to support the health and well-being of young men and their

surrounding communities. Therefore, one of the main questions leading the current study asks ‘Is there a way to utilize positive masculinity primes to increase men’s likelihood of making positive and healthy decisions?’ In other words, can masculinity truly be seen and demonstrated positively (i.e., Positive Psychology/Positive Masculinity Framework (PMMM); Kiselica & Englar-Carlson, 2010).

Gender Priming: What Do We Know?

Gender stereotype priming research has largely focused on the immediate impact of gendered primes on judgments, intentions, or behaviors or how men, when primed to self-stereotype, relate to others. The following section will delineate what we, as a field, presently know about gender stereotype priming in addition to critically examining the gaps in the current literature. First, this will involve a separate exploration of previous studies examining masculine gender priming on judgments, masculinity gender priming on behaviors, and masculinity gender priming on intentions. Although these represent

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different real-life implications they cumulatively represent the impact of stereotypical masculinity on the beliefs and behaviors of individuals.

Judgments. Banaji, Hardin, and Rothman (1993) conducted three experiments

that provided support for the impact of implicit gender stereotype priming on the

judgments of participants. In their first of two studies, Banaji et al. (1993) requested that participants complete a modified scrambled sentence task (Srull & Wyer, 1979) with 45 sentences. Two conditions included primes related to the study, with 30 of the 45 sentences describing either stereotypically aggressive (e.g., ‘threatens other people.’ ‘belongs to NRA’) or stereotypically dependent (e.g., ‘can’t make decisions,’ ‘stays unhappily married’) behaviors. The rest of the sentences, including all 45 in a third neutral condition, described neutral behaviors (e.g., ‘crossed the street’). After

unscrambling the sentences in one of the three conditions, and completing an unrelated ‘filler’ task (i.e., ten minutes), participants were asked to complete an unrelated ‘reading comprehension task,’ comprised of stories referring to either a male or female target person behaving in ways weakly related to the primes. After reading the story,

participants were asked to rate the target person on a 10-point Likert scale in regard to 17 traits, nine that were either stereotypically aggressive (e.g., ambitious, hot-headed, stubborn) or stereotypically dependent (e.g., polite, cooperative, insecure), and eight neutral traits (e.g., neat, talented, unhealthy).

In a sample of 222 undergraduate men and women in the United States, Banaji et al. (1993) found that participants, regardless of sex, judged the female target person as significantly more ‘dependent’ than male target person when primed with dependent behaviors [t(38) = 3.15, p = .003]. Furthermore, when primed with dependent behaviors,

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participants rated male target persons significantly less ‘dependent’ than participants primed with neutral behaviors [t(44) = 2.26, p = .03]. Similarly, participants judged male target persons, not female target persons, as significantly more aggressive when primed with aggressive primes than when primed with neutral primes [t(69) = 2.84, p = .006]. The trait ratings, when exposed to neutral primes, did not differ significantly for male or female target persons in regard to dependent or aggressive traits. This study

demonstrated the impact of stereotypical gendered primes on participant judgments of target persons.

Muller and Rothermund (2014), in an attempt to reproduce stereotype prime classifications, reported that gender-categorization of names (i.e., identifying the sex associated with names which are unambiguously male or female) was significantly faster [F(1, 293) = 75.54, p < .001, partial 𝜂2=.20] after participants were primed with

stereotypically congruent gender primes (e.g., man, king, computer, to drink, brutal) than incongruent primes (i.e., neutral or opposite sex stereotypes; mother). However, Muller and Rothermund (2014) also reported that the priming effect was more pronounced with gender primes that are, by definition, male or female (e.g., father; F(1,293) = 67, p < .001, partial 𝜂2=.19) in comparison to primes which are, stereotypically, masculine or feminine [e.g., brutal; F(1,147) = 50.41, p < .001, partial 𝜂2=.15]. These findings may suggest that reminding participants of associations with explicit maleness (i.e., father) or femaleness may prime a more direct pathway from sex to gender for individuals to categorize based upon traditional stereotypes. These findings also may highlight a potentially more nuanced fluidity with gender primes that are stereotypically masculine or feminine but not, by definition, male or female.

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Behaviors. Mast, Sieverding, Esslen, Graber, and Jancke (2008) utilized gender

priming to establish a link between masculinity and risky driving (i.e., speeding). They utilized an 8-minute driving simulator in order to safely assess driving speed.

Participants were allowed 3-5 minutes to become comfortable with the driving simulator. In this study, gender priming involved words read over the radio of the driving simulator at a rate of one word every three seconds. Participants were each assigned to one of three priming conditions: Masculine (e.g., strong, suit, father), feminine (e.g., empathic,

lipstick, mother), and neutral (e.g., rent, private, blind). In the two gendered conditions, participants heard 56 masculine or 56 feminine words randomly interspersed with 59 gender-neutral words. In the neutral condition, participants heard 115 gender-neutral words. Mast et al. (2008) utilized a sample of 83 European (i.e., mainly from Germany and Switzerland) men in college with active driving licenses. Although driving was not significantly different in the first two minutes of the driving simulator, they found a significant increase in driving speed [F(2,80) = 4.36, p = .16] for only men in the masculine condition (t = 2.92, p = .00025, d = .65). Here, the presentation of implicit stereotypically masculine terms had a real, risky, impact on men’s driving.

In a sample of college men in Taiwan, Chiou, Wu, and Lee (2013) explored the relationship between masculinity and energy drink consumption. Chiou et al.’s (2013) first study utilized two modified scrambled sentence tasks (Srull & Wyer, 1979), one that included phrases with masculine (e.g., assertive, ambitious, risk-taking) words and one with only gender-neutral (e.g., sociable) words. After completing either the masculine or neutral condition, participants were offered either a mineral water or energy drink for participating. In a sample of 72 men, significantly more participants in the masculine

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prime condition (69%) requested the energy drink as opposed to in the neutral condition (44%), odds ratio = 2.83, 95% confidence interval: 1.35-1.54, B = 1.04, Wald = 4.48, p = .034, Cox & Snell 𝑅2 = .06. As both the drinks were found to be equally appealing in a pilot study, it appears as though priming with masculine-related terms was significant enough to activate the desire to consume energy drinks – a drink associated with manhood, risk-taking, and adventure (see Chiou et al., 2013).

In their second study, Chiou et al. (2013) sought to expand their exploration of masculinity and energy drink consumption to include perceived threats to manhood. In a sample of 93 undergraduate men, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: affirmed masculinity, threatened-masculinity, and control. A male researcher greeted all participants and requested they complete a ‘bogus’ measure of masculinity-femininity where participants rated their interest in gender-neutral activities (i.e., drinking coffee). This scale allowed for the researcher to provide ‘bogus’ feedback regarding participant masculinity based upon the experimental condition they were randomly assigned. Participants in the ‘threatened-masculinity’ condition were told they scored low in masculinity, participants in the ‘affirmed-masculinity’ condition were told they scored high in masculinity, and participants in the control group were not provided any feedback. Participants were then asked to rate their own adherence to masculine traits (e.g., assertiveness, competence) on a 7-point Likert scale. Finally, each participant was given 900 ml of energy drinks for an ‘unrelated’ taste test.

Chiou et al. (2013) reported that participant’s perceived masculinity differed significantly depending on the experimental condition [F(2,90) = 10.46, p < .001, partial 𝜂2=.188], with participants in the ‘threatened-masculinity’ condition rating themselves

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significantly less masculine than the control group [t(90) = -2.20, p = .031, d = .23], and ‘affirmed-masculinity’ participants rating themselves significantly more masculine than the control group [t(90) = 2.38, p = .02, d = .25]. Similarly, energy drink consumption differed significantly based upon experimental condition [F(2,89) = 16.775, p < .001, partial 𝜂2=.261]. Participants in the ‘threatened-masculinity’ condition consumed

significantly more energy drinks than both participants in the control group [t(89) = 3.20,

p = .001, d = .38], and participants in the ‘affirmed-masculinity’ group [t(89) = 5.58, p <

.001, d = .59]. Participants in the ‘affirmed-masculinity’ group also consumed

significantly less than participants in the control group [t(89) = -2.42, p = .027, d = .24]. Combined, Chiou et al.’s (2013) study demonstrates the association between masculinity, the demonstration of masculinity through energy drink consumption, and the implications of feedback regarding one’s own masculinity.

Intentions. Ben-Zeev, Scharnetski, Chan, and Dennehy (2012) established a link

between masculinity priming and intentions for affective communication in heterosexual relationships. In their study, participants would watch a video clip described as part of a ‘memory for visual and audio information’ (p. 56) before reading about a second study involving a ‘clinical case.’ Participants were assigned to one of three priming conditions that were each comprised of 60-second movie clips: blatant (i.e., a man physically walking away from an emotional conversation), subtle (i.e., a man silencing/re-directing an emotional conversation), or neutral (i.e., video of reptiles or amphibians). The unrelated clinical case involved a video of a heterosexual romantic couple. Participants were asked to rate their willingness to participate as a default ‘participant’ (i.e.,

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We also provide a complete description of discrete multivariate cosine transforms of types V–VIII involving the Weyl group orbit functions arising from simple Lie algebras C n and B n

In summary, a length of 3-core, 132kV subsea cable had a number of load current profiles applied while the temperature and current data obtained from conductive components of

• Use the Remote Installer to install Dynatrace Network Analyzer Agent software to a Windows machine on your network from a central location.. This process is referred